In conventional radiography where an X-ray image of a patient is produced by exposing a radiographic film to X-rays transmitted through a patient, several identification items are produced on the film such as a patient's identification items, the hospital's name, an identification of the radiologist, an examination type identification etc. These identification data are first produced on an identification card. Then, a dedicated location on the radiographic film is exposed to the image of the card in an identification camera.
Recently a wide variety of new image acquisition techniques that render a digital representation of an image have been developed. For many examination types these techniques have gained a lot of importance.
Among these new techniques are computerised tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasound, detection of a radiation image by means of a CCD sensor or a video camera, radiographic film scanning etc.
Still another technique has been developed wherein a radiation image, for example X-rays transmitted by an object, is stored in a screen comprising a photostimulable phosphor such as one of the phosphors described in European patent application 503 702 published Sep. 16, 1992 and in U.S. Ser. 07/842,603.
The procedure for reading out the stored radiation image consists of scanning the screen with stimulating radiation, such as laser light of the appropriate wavelength, detecting the light emitted upon stimulation and converting the emitted light into an electric representation for example by means of a photomultiplier.
This technique further comprises digitizing and processing said electric signal.
After read-out of the image stored in the photostimulable phosphor screen, one disposes of an electric (e.g. digital) image representation that can be applied to a monitor for display of the corresponding visual image.
The digital image representation of a medical image that is acquired by one of these techniques can further be applied to a recorder for recording a hard copy image, for example on film. This hard-copy can be viewed on a lightbox for diagnostic purposes.
Also in case of reproduction of an image acquired by one of these `digital` acquisition techniques it is common practice to provide a text box on the film. Commonly several identification data such as the name of the hospital and of the radiologist, specifics on the patient such as the patient's name and identification number, are reproduced on a dedicated location on the hard copy. Often also data that are relevant with regard to evaluation of the image acquisition and image processing, for example processing parameters, minimum and maximum density etc. are reproduced in the text box on the hard copy.
The lay out of these text box is fixed in the systems that are on the market nowadays. This means that one lay out has been selected and installed and that this lay out cannot be changed to meet the customer's specifications, in casu the specifications of the staff of the hospital where the image acquisition and reproducing device has been installed.
However, hospitals and radiologists often demand for a very specific lay out of the text box.
They would either like to have a text box that has a similar lay out as the text box they were used to work with in conventional radiography systems or they have very specific desires.
These very specific desires are different from country to country. For example, in a country such as Sweden where many people have the same surname and the same christian name, more importance is given to a patient's identification number than to his name and hence the hospitals in Sweden often desire that the patient's identification number is reproduced in a more notable way in the text box than are the other items.
The reproducing systems that are on the market nowadays do not provide such features.
Further, also on display devices such as monitors, a displayed image is often provided with a text box. The above described reflections relating to text boxes on hard copy images apply also to text boxes on soft copy images.